Lyndon Baines Johnson

Before congress:

LBJ: There is no cause for pride in what has happened in Selma. There is no cause for self-satisfaction in the long denial of equal rights of millions of Americans. But there is cause for hope and for faith in our Democracy in what is happening here tonight. For the cries of pain and the hymns and protests of oppressed people have summoned into convocation all the majesty of this great government--the government of the greatest nation on earth.

Our mission is at once the oldest and the most basic of this country--to right wrong, to do justice, to serve man. In our time we have come to live with the moments of great crises. Our lives have been marked with debate about great issues, issues of war and peace, issues of prosperity and depression. But rarely in any time does an issue lay bare the secret heart of America itself. Rarely are we met with a challenge, not to our growth or abundance, or our welfare or our security, but rather to the values and the purposes and the meaning of our beloved nation. The issue of equal rights for American Negroes is such an issue. And should we defeat every enemy, and should we double our wealth and conquer the stars, and still be unequal to this issue, then we will have failed as a people and as a nation. For, with a country as with a person, "what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"

There is no Negro problem. There is no Southern problem. There is no Northern problem. There is only an American problem.

Comments

[srg]

If that speech sends chills down your spine as it did mine, you will vote no on Proposition 8.

[howard]

i am old enough to remember that speech (i was 12); it was part of what made the '60s seem so promising.

the whole history of the last 40 years would have been different had lbj not bought into vietnam....

[john]

I have long believed that had it not been for his decision to remain in Vietnam despite believing that the war could not be won (in order, he believed, to avoid impeachment) he would have gone down as one of our greatest presidents.

Of course, that's a pretty big "if".

[Bob Eisenberg]

Now I understand.
Ted Sorensen wrote the LBJ speech.
Ted Sorensen has spoken exceedingly
well of Barack Obama in interviews.

Need I say more?

[Jim]

Ted Sorensen interviewed with both Scoop Jackson and JFK and was selected by both to be a top aide for each Senator when each was a freshman. He was advised to go with Jackson because he had the more promising career. Both selected him and he had to choose. He reinterviewed and asked each what each wanted him to do. Scoop said he knew Ted had alot of newspaper contacts and he wanted to see his name in the paper so he wanted him to go to his newspaper friends and get Scoop's name in their papers. JFK told him to go to economics profs in New England and get advice from them that he could use in putting together an economic plan to help folks. Ted Sorensen chose Kennedy. As an aside,Ted Sorensen's mom was Jewish. And Richard Goodwin, the Pres of the Harvard Law Review and the smartest guy in the class that included Ralph Nader, and himself not a bad speechwriter, quit Kennedy's staff because he couldn't get along with Sorensen

[Jim]

Ted Sorensen interviewed with both Scoop Jackson and JFK and was selected by both to be a top aide for each Senator when each was a freshman. He was advised to go with Jackson because he had the more promising career. Both selected him and he had to choose. He reinterviewed and asked each what each wanted him to do. Scoop said he knew Ted had alot of newspaper contacts and he wanted to see his name in the paper so he wanted him to go to his newspaper friends and get Scoop's name in their papers. JFK told him to go to economics profs in New England and get advice from them that he could use in putting together an economic plan to help folks. Ted Sorensen chose Kennedy. As an aside,Ted Sorensen's mom was Jewish. And Richard Goodwin, the Pres of the Harvard Law Review and the smartest guy in the class that included Ralph Nader, and himself not a bad speechwriter, quit Kennedy's staff because he couldn't get along with Sorensen